Embajador Montevideo

... chavs drink, shout and bang drums and party all night until 6.00am. Just when we think that there is a chance for some sleep, the local road gang turns up at 7.30am and dig up the road with pneumatic drills. After two disrupted nights we cracked and moved to the suburbs of the city to a hotel overlooking one of the many beaches.

Oddly for a place that is supposed to be one of the great cities of the continent there aren’t many interesting or historic ...

... keep moving. A friend of mine had her camera stolen there. If I had to make a suggestion, I would say skip Montevideo (or spend an afternoon there at the most) and spend your time in Punta del Este or maybe one of the old cities close by.

Whatever you do though, do not skip over Uruguay entirely. It is definitely worth seeing, especially for the relaxed traveler who just wants some good food, a beautiful strech of beach and a sunset.

... time to move on.

We stayed at the Hotel Iguassu, which had a nice location, but aside from a nice lobby and a helpful hotel staff, was ugly, loud and freezing cold. The last night I slept in my coat. Our guide did a pretty minimal city tour walking us around the historic district, but not explaining much or taking us in to see anything. Some of the buildings were really beautiful, but ...

... including these two examples.


Montevideo also has two very nice residential neighborhoods, Pocito and Carrasco. Both of these neighborhoods were once beach resorts but have now been overtaken by the city. High-rise buildings line the beaches, but behind these towers, the neighborhoods have some lovely homes and are quite low density, given their proximity to the historic business center. These ...

... into Colonia de Sacramento at 12.30 and went to grab a bus to Montevideo. We hadn't prebooked a bus as it was cheaper just to grab one when you get here, and easy. It was a 2 and a half hour journey to the Terminal Tres Cruces bus station in Montevideo. Upon arrival, we immediately found the street we were staying on (Av. 18 de Julio) and thought we would be at the hostel in 5 minutes - incorrect!! We were stopping at number 1103 ...

... of the dish. No wonder it was more expensive than the other places as it took them 20 minutes longer just to put everything nice and posh on the long thing rectangle plate. I couldn't finish mine as there was loads and it was 1am by the time we left the restaurant. I don't know how people can eat so late and so much on a week night when they have to get up for work the next day. I won't be doing that again that's for sure. G'night.

We arrived in Montevideo mid afternoon, got on a local bus and headed downtown to check into an older hotel. Then we hit the streets for some sightseeing. We had the one evening to spend here and we intended to make the most of it. We wandered around town. It was a beautiful warm Friday afternoon. The city has a slight Buenos Aires feel to it, in that it has some older colonial style buildings. People also seem to be relatively relaxed even though they all must ...

... is really to hang around and try to sort out our Spanish notes so that we can access the relevant bits easily rather than shuffle through 20 pages of dog eared A4 pages and then trying to decipher my apallaing handwriting... We have been back to the botanical gardens (with all the cats) and given them some of our lunch :o) They seem to really like chicken empanadas (a bit like small cornish pasties). We fly to Ushuaia ...

... second and more sedate dining room on the primer piso. Leafing through the menu was futile for my friends...it was meat all the way. After 5 out of 6 nights, I was ready for some pescado. Bad choice...the lenguada was asi-asi but the "baby beef" was awesome. Thanks for sharing guys! Engaged in yet another tasty flan dessert (oh how I love thee), we soon began the traditional game of "Flan Jenga"...named after the 90's board game that had the players build a tower ...

... take in some air etc. But no, the boat is like a plane, you can´t go outside, can´t see where you´re going, and the seats are like airline seats, reclining and all. It turned out to be the fast boat after all, not sure how we managed that, but we connected with the bus and hoofed it straight to Montevideo. Another magnificent terminal, Tres Cruces. We were introduced there to the local beer "Patricia" and chivitos, Uruguay´s steak ...